Tour of Britain

Is it me or is that bloody ridiculous?

I suspect it’s more to do with logistics, if Police need to be recalled from traffic management on the event to other duties and possibly the “ceremonial” people involved (mayor of start / finish town etc) are also required elsewhere.

But yes, it’s annoying and it throws out the entire race calculation strategy for the teams.

They’ve now cancelled the whole race and declared current standings as final.

I suspect it’s more to do with logistics, if Police need to be recalled from traffic management on the event to other duties

Like what, nothing will be happening for at least a week.

Really disappointing, it was going thru our village in Dorset on Saturday :-(

Very unlikely to do so again in my lifetime. :-(

It would be good if the organisers included this year’s cancelled stages in next year’s route.

Like what, nothing will be happening for at least a week.

Police needed elsewhere – crowd control, security, rehearsals for the funeral. Some may need to take leave immediately to free them up further down the line for other duties.

Major road races take up a huge amount of policing resources both on the race itself and through the various towns/cities they go through. The policing for the funeral is going to be on a similar scale to the Olympics… There simply aren’t the spare resources to carry on running a bike race. I’m willing to bet most major sporting events, football matches etc will be cancelled or postponed.

There’s also how it might look for sponsors etc to have loads of screaming happy schoolchildren out waving flags as the race passes, it’s not really “the national mood” (whether you agree with it or not).

A bit OTT, yes. I get that today’s stage would / should be cancelled, like it or not the country is a monarchy and the much loved monarch of 70 years died yesterday. But life goes on, and while some multiday events can’t lose a day without damaging the contest, I feel this one could.

Test match – hard to squeeze into 4 days especially as yesterday was lost to rain anyway. PGA Golf at Wentworth – just make it a 54 hole tournament. ToB – could lose the stage and might affect standings or chances for some depending on what type of stage today was, but overall could have continued.

There’s no race with no Police cover, and the Police have to decide what the priorities have to be.

Can see todays stage cancelled out of respect, but from my uninformed position,I’m not seeing the Police being needed elsewhere for the next couple of days, but better folk than me have all the facts.

Are all major sporting events cancelled now in the run up to funeral on the same basis? No Police for football and rugby matches?

All part of https://www.politico.eu/article/queen-elizabeth-death-plan-britain-operation-london-bridge/
Huge amounts of resources being re-deployed. Leave will be cancelled, so its all about priorities.

Huge amounts of resources being re-deployed. Leave will be cancelled, so its all about priorities.

Pretty sure you’ll find that the same folk who complain about the Police getting involved in “woke” stuff won’t be complaining that they’re not investigating crime etc during the next couple of weeks.

I’ve policed quite a few major events, Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Heads of Government, G8 (Prestwick/Gleneagles), major sporting events; Open Golf etc. The drain on police resources before, during and after is enormous and far beyond that which the public might appreciate.

London Bridge will be bigger than all of the above. Consider that heads of state from most countries of the world will either attend the UK themselves or send a VVIP, foreign minister / prince etc, in their place. Those 150+ heads of state and their entourages will require police support.

Depending on the ‘importance’ / security risk of world leaders, they can have from one liaison officer and a police driver or two, right up to a team of armed officers, multi vehicle convoys and a full team of marked bikes to implement rolling road blocks on every journey that head of state may undertake from the moment they touch down until they leave. Every officer allocated to a world leader will have to alter their rest days / annual leave to ensure adequate rest before and after the event. All affected officers will be fully seconded from their own force and accommodated locally to whichever area they are to be deployed (Balmoral, Edinburgh, London and various royal residences). Those involved in security escort duties (drivers, bikers and shootists) may have been seconded from hundreds of miles away and will have to recce planned routes and multiple alternatives well in advance of live duty.

Public Order, Dog Branch, Mounted, Underwater, Marine, Counter Terrorism and Special Branch Officers will be similarly seconded and deployed. Search and seal of a multitude of vehicles and premises (including drains and tunnels) will be undertaken beforehand. All such vehicles and buildings will then have to be guarded 24/7 by uniformed officers, also seconded from across the UK. Uniformed officers will also be drafted in for cordons on urban cortege routes (more drains).

Everyone needs bed and board and most will need transportation to and from their secondment. It’s mind bogglingly huge and will leave the rest of the country with **** all policing cover. That might help explain why they pulled the plug on a bike race.

Then it will happen all over again for the coronation.

So glad I’m retired….

Pretty sure you’ll find that the same folk who complain about the Police getting involved in “woke” stuff won’t be complaining that they’re not investigating crime etc during the next couple of weeks.

I’m thinking I’m going to need to use that….

Tis only sport.

I get that the policing for the funeral will be completed and need lots of officers but given the race was due to finish this weekend I would have thought they could finish and still have over a week to prepare. Surely the met police the funeral our dues the rest of the country have to loose its force aswell

You lot all on crack ?

The police all appear to be up here clearing the route from Balmoral to Edinburgh entirely of cars along its entire length. The 60 miles from Balmoral to Aberdeen has been coned in almost entirety for tomorrows procession.

This evening they are going door to door with a flat bed for cars that have not been moved in our village. – I would expect that will be the same all the way to town and then Dundee and Edinburgh also.

This isn’t a one day funeral. Hadn’t really grasped the scale my self till I saw the show of police today.